Name: Salad Sandwiches
Ingredients: equal parts cold boiled tongue, finely chopped; equal parts breast of chicken, finely chopped; coarse sea salt to taste; celery salt to taste; cayenne pepper to taste; mayonnaise or boiled dressing

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salad Sandwiches

Ingredients

equal parts cold boiled tongue, finely chopped
equal parts breast of chicken, finely chopped
coarse sea salt to taste
celery salt to taste
cayenne pepper to taste
mayonnaise or boiled dressing

Directions

Combine the cold boiled tongue and chicken in a bowl.
Pound the mixture to a paste.
Season with coarse sea salt, celery salt, and cayenne pepper.
Moisten the mixture with mayonnaise or boiled dressing.
Spread the mixture on baking powder biscuits or rolls.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,375 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).